Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonny Shwonik.
Hi Jonny, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started home brewing about 16 years ago. I was a craft beer drinker when I moved here but at that time there were not many breweries close to where I live. After talking to a brewery owner from where I was from he suggested I try to just make my own. After brewing for a number of years I was talked into opening a brewery. It was never really a goal of mine and the market already had “enough” breweries. One of my friends insisted I needed to do it though. If it was not for him I do not think we would be here today. We knew we would have to do something different so we did. We are staying small for a reason and our regulars will tell you it is like cheers here. Some people do not like that the taproom is small but this is all we could do with what we had. We pride ourself on making drinkable beer with a very friendly atmosphere. We pulled it off.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There were many struggles along the way. We did not have a lot of capital so needed to save money anywhere we could without sacrificing the end result. We were doing the buildout during COVID so that just added to the issues. We direct sourced all of our equipment to cut out the middle man which helped tremendously but when it came time to ship the equipment there were issues. It was the tail end of COVID and the ship our equipment was supposed to be on got bought by one of the giant retailers so our shipment got bumped to another ship. It became a logistics nightmare after that. Building, owning and running a business is not for everyone that’s for sure. We learned a lot building this place and we are glad we did it.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I come from a machining background so I am very good with my hands. I worked for MOEN for 15 years and was their Machining technician for the last 6 years. I was basically an engineer without the degree. I had 15 years experience from my last job when I came to MOEN and was the lead machinist there when I left. I am a workaholic to say the least. At MOEN I was responsible for all the day to day activities in their machining department. From trouble shooting/ repairing machines to keep the parts washer running it was my responsibility. This helped tremendously when we built out the brewery. I did everything from working with the manufacturer on tank design to all the install, I did it all. Designing and installing the whole system was very rewarding for me. I joke all the time that I am just a Polish machinist.
Any big plans?
We plan on staying small as that was always our plan. We are a little different than a lot of other breweries. We would like to have a little larger tap room but other then that we are very happy being where we are. We still have the room for more capacity so we might start distributing a little more we will see. I will say the demand is there, I honestly never expected the feedback we get. It has been really good.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jocobrewingcompany.com
